When you only have a handful of big names, you’d think they would look better than this.Source:Supplied

WHEN you watch a champion like Roger Federer win a record-breaking 20th grand slam at the Australian Open, it’s hard not feel invigorated for the sport of tennis.

With inspiration at its highest, you can either brave the heat out on the court or live out your sporting dreams with new video game AO Tennis.

Actually, scrap that. You should just brave the heat because Aussie video game developer Big Ant has butchered yet another sporting game.

Yes, the people who brought us the abomination known as Rugby League Live 4 and all its predecessors are back and causing more damage to tennis than Jelena Dokic’s father.

It might sound harsh, but the developers at Big Ant have shown they are consistent when it comes to releasing a half-baked sporting game with a premium price tag.

Selling for the RRP of $99.95, AO Tennis has a frustrating lack of polish, poor presentation and subpar mechanics — making it basically feel as if you were playing a PS2 game, not something on a next-gen console.

Let’s start with the first major let-down. You pay $100 of your hard-earned cash and want to play with your hero Roger Federer. Well, you can’t. Nor can you play with Djokovic, Kyrgios, Williams, Wozniacki or many other tennis stars.

At the time of release, there are only around some 18 real-life professional players available in the game, with Rafael Nadal the biggest name by far.

While the creators of AO Tennis claim there will be more professional names added in future updates, it seems like a poor option to release the game with such limited characters — and the majority of those in the game are hardly well-known to casual fans.

So for now, $99.95 will not allow you to play using the two people who actually won the male and female grand slam titles in real-life, despite the game being called AUSTRALIAN OPEN Tennis — hmm.

But let’s say you can look past the inability to play with anyone other than Nadal and still want to give the game a try. My advice would be: please don’t.

It’s great they included photographers courtside. If only they moved.Source:Supplied

Aside from the total lack of commentary, motionless courtside photographers, poorly animated crowd and player reactions with no context, there are terrible controls which players are left to figure out themselves as AO Tennis offers no in-game tutorials.

As you would expect with a tennis game, each of the controller’s buttons corresponds to a different shot type, with power determined by how long you hold before the swing.

To nail a shot, gamers have to be in exactly the right position relative to the ball, which is no easy feat given your lack of ability to dive and how awkwardly players glide across the court.

But none of this really matters all that much, because I lost count of the amount of times I was in position to return, only to have my player stand motionless as the ball bounces past — unresponsive seems like an apt description here.

Another criticism I have with AO Tennis — because 100,000,000 issues isn’t enough — is the lacklustre career mode which doesn’t include mini-games or practice courts to up your skills and keep you interested between tournament games.

Oh and there isn’t even a trophy presentation after winning the final, which seems a little strange given that’s what happens in the actual Australian Open from which this game is based.

Overall the game — like most things with Big Ant involved — feels underdeveloped and underwhelming, which is only exacerbated by the hefty price tag.

For a tradie who charged premium prices for jobs but constantly underdelivered, chances are they wouldn’t have a career for long. So I am wondering how many more chances people are willing to give Big Ant before they stop giving them money to make these pieces of crap.

For those who believe I have been too hard and think I should support an Aussie developer giving things a crack, there is nothing to be celebrated about a 2018 game that looks and feels like this.

When it comes to playing AO Tennis again, I think I would rather spend a decade in prison.